Gold steady ahead of U.S. Fed interest rate decision

REUTERS - Gold held firm on Wednesday after hitting a one-week high in the previous session, as traders awaited a decision on interest rates by the U.S. Federal Reserve, which is expected to keep policy on hold.

FUNDAMENTALS

* Spot gold was little changed at $1,210.79 an ounce by 0054 GMT. U.S. gold futures climbed 0.1 percent to $1,209.70.

* Spot gold rose over 5 percent in January, its best month since June 2016.

* The U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to keep interest rates unchanged on Wednesday in its first policy decision since President Donald Trump took office, as the central bank awaits greater clarity on his economic policies.

* The dollar suffered its worst January in three decades after President Trump complained that every "other country lives on devaluation." [USD/]

* The comments intensified expectations that the new U.S. administration was making moves to talk down the greenback just hours after Trump's top trade adviser, Peter Navarro, told the Financial Times that Germany is using a "grossly undervalued" euro to gain advantage over the United States and its own European Union partners.

* U.S. consumer confidence retreated from a 15-year high in January, likely as some of the election euphoria fizzled, but households remained upbeat about the labor market, suggesting that the economy would continue to grow this year.

* Some of Wall Street's largest fund managers have taken a contrarian bet on gold, wagering that U.S. President Donald Trump's governing style and upcoming elections in Europe will combine to create more stock market volatility and boost the prices of a metal long seen as a safe haven.

* U.S. private equity firm Orion Mine Finance Group is in talks to sell a portfolio of 87 mining royalty, streaming and offtake assets, Orion portfolio manager Douglas Silver said on Tuesday.

* Britain's economy now looks set to slow only slightly in 2017 after its resilient response to last year's Brexit vote, but growth is still likely to be a lot weaker than if the country had decided to stay in the European Union, a think tank said.

* Inflation in the euro zone has risen to just below the European Central Bank's target, economic growth is accelerating at greater speed than in the United States, and unemployment has hit a more than seven-year low.

(Reporting By Nallur Sethuraman in Bengaluru; Editing by Richard Pullin)